Feb 06, 2012

Ogoni: HRW World Report Highlights Ogoniland Pollution


A report by HRW revealed that cleaning the oil pollution in Ogoni land would cost $1 billion and take up to 30 years.

Below is an article published by Leadership:

The Human Right Watch (HRW) has revealed that the level of oil pollution in the Ogoni land region of Rivers State would require an initial cost of $1 billion, and would take up to 30 years.

Citing an  August 2011 United Nation’s report, the agency stated that oil contamination had migrated into the groundwater in at least eight spill sites that Shell, the largest oil company in Nigeria had claimed they had remediated.

HRW in its 2012 human rights report said the government has made little effort to address the environmental damage from oil pollution, corruption at the state and local government levels, political sponsorship of armed groups and poverty in the oil rich region.

The report further revealed that decades of oil spills from the operations of multinational oil companies, sabotage of pipelines, bunkering of crude oil, and widespread gas flaring have left the Niger Delta heavily polluted.

“Decades of oil spills from the operations of multinational oil companies, sabotage of pipelines, and bunkering (theft) of crude oil and widespread gas flaring have left the Niger Delta heavily polluted. A UN report in August found that oil pollution in the Ogoniland region of Rivers State may require the world’s largest clean up ever, at an initial cost of $1 billion, and will  take up to 30 years.

“The UN team found that oil contamination had migrated into the groundwater in at least eight spill sites that Shell—the largest oil company in Nigeria had claimed they had remediated. The government made little effort to address the environmental damage from oil pollution, corruption at the State and local governments and political sponsorship of armed groups, which drive violence and poverty in the oil-rich region,” the report stated.